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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2000, p. 3553-3558, Vol. 182, No. 12
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

A Common Step for Changing Cell Shape in Fruiting Body and Starvation-Independent Sporulation of Myxococcus xanthus

E. Licking,dagger L. Gorski,Dagger and D. Kaiser*

Departments of Biochemistry and Developmental Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305

Received 27 January 2000/Accepted 27 March 2000

Myxococcus xanthus can sporulate in either of two ways: at the end of the program of fruiting body development or after exposure of growing cells to certain reagents such as concentrated glycerol. Fruiting body sporulation requires starvation, while glycerol sporulation requires rapid growth, and since the two types of spores are structurally somewhat different, it has generally been assumed that the two processes are different. However, a Tn5 Lac insertion mutation, Omega 7536, has been isolated which simultaneously blocks the development of fruiting body spores as well as glycerol-induced spores. Both sporulation pathways are blocked in the mutant within the process that converts a rod-shaped cell into a spherical spore. The Omega 7536 locus is expressed at the time of cell shape change appropriate to each process, early after glycerol induction and late after starvation induction. On the C-signal response pathway, it is possible to identify positions for the normal function of the Omega 7536 locus and for the inducing stimulus from glycerol that are unique and consistent with the observations. Although the two sporulation pathways differ in certain respects, it is shown that they share at least one step for changing a rod-shaped cell into a spherical spore.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Beckman Center, B300, Stanford University School of Medicine, 279 Campus Dr., Stanford, CA 94035-5329. Phone: (650) 723-6165. Fax: (650) 725-7739. E-mail: Luttman{at}cmgm.stanford.edu.

dagger Present address: Science Desk, Business Week Magazine, New York, NY 10020.

Dagger Present address: Western Regional Research Center, USDA/ARS, Albany, CA 94710.


Journal of Bacteriology, June 2000, p. 3553-3558, Vol. 182, No. 12
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



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